Automated transfer systems are utilized by parcel delivery companies and airports to match in-coming packages with proper outgoing transport headed for the packages' destinations. For instance in the courier industry, shippers load truck trailers with mixed loads including envelopes, parcels, packages, bags, or individual articles of different size, weight, and physical characteristics including height, width, and length and irregular dimensions. The items are off-sorted into “small” “regular” and “irregular/incompatible” groupings. Conventional methods of automating unloading equipment have met limited success of automatic. Robotic “gripper” technology is expensive. The sorting equipment must be very fast, yet provide gentle and accurate handling of packages of various dimensions, shapes, and sizes. Different sorting sub-systems must be used to process different types of items. Manual labor is still used to sort unconventional shaped packages.
A reliable need still exists for separating items (parcels, packages, bags, articles) of different types and sizes delivered and unloaded from a shipping container, i.e. trailer according to the type of parcel. Meeting this goal is particularly difficult in the case of large or heavy irregular shaped packages. Belt and roller conveyor systems have often been used in package sorting systems to move packages from in-coming loading docks to outgoing transport.
There is a need to separate items unloaded from the transport vehicle or trainer or shipping container which typically contain mixed loads or parcels according to their type so that they can be sorted using the appropriate systems. High capacity sorting plants require separation by item type. Large scale operations incorporate subsystems for small, regular, irregular, and incompatible items to prevent interruption of the conveyor transport flow. Different sorting sub-systems process different types of items. A process is needed to automatically separate different parcel types as they are unloaded from the trailer.
An initial sorting of packages traveling along a conveyor may be accomplished by diverting packages from the conveyor based on their destinations, or based on their size, weight or other characteristics. Under both manual and automatic scenarios of trailer unloading, it is convenient to use a single extendable belt conveyor to transfer items from within the trailer.
Some conveyor systems include a main conveyor having a belt or multiple powered rollers or wheels fitted between the wheels below the normal conveyor surface. U.S. Pat. No. 3,926,298 teaches a conveyor assembly wherein a section of the drive rollers can be lowered to drop a parcel onto the belt conveyor, without interrupting the speed of articles moving along the primary path. However, the belt conveyor can divert in only one direction.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,547,084 teaches a luggage sorting system in which bags are fed onto a moving carriage that includes multiple conveyors. After loading, the carriage moves along a track until it aligns with output conveyors. Then the carriage conveyors shift the bags from the carriage to appropriate output conveyors. This is not a high speed sorting system because the bags must come to rest on the carriage and be transported laterally, and then accelerated again after sorting.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,699,161 teaches a method and apparatus for measuring the dimensions of a package utilizing triangulation range finder lasers.
U.S. Pat. Nos. 6,690,995 and 6,952,626 teach a center of gravity and dimension measuring device and apparatus.
Conventional pop-up transfer conveyors require that the on-coming conveyor belt stop as the article passes over the pop-up transfer conveyor in order that the belts of the pop of conveyor can be raised and activated to transfer the article onto a receiving or diverging conveyor with the article maintained in a proper orientation for conveyance on the receiving conveyor. A problem occurs when the oncoming conveyor does not stop with the article over the pop-up conveyor, in that longitudinal articles are rotated sideways in the transfer procedure which causes downstream orientation problems with the receiving conveyor.
Under both manual and automatic scenarios to transport or container unloading, it is convenient to use a single extendable belt conveyor to transfer items from within the trailer or storage facility. Different sorting sub-systems process different types items. There is a need for a process to automatically separate different parcel types as they are unloaded from the trailer or transport and for a diverter that can reliably divert irregular shaped packages from a main conveyor path, using a slide sorter mechanism that is modular and easy to repair, all while operating at a high speed of throughput along the main path.